About Us
The Sandspur is the student newspaper of Rollins College. The student employees of The Sandspur strive to be the primary source of news about the Rollins College community, contributing to the campus by providing a voice and a real-world learning environment for students. The paper publishes weekly on Thursdays during the fall and spring semesters with a weekly circulation of 1,000 copies. The Sandspur can also be found online at thesandspur.org . The website receives approximately 4,000 views weekly. Mission Statement The Sandspur’s core purpose is to be the most accurate, thorough, and interesting source of news for the Rollins College community. To uphold this mission, the staff members of The Sandspur '' will: *Assertively find and pursue high-interest stories that impact the reader, create discussion, and advance knowledge *Make all content as relevant to readers as possible *Create content that reflects the diverse interests of the Rollins College community *Adhere to ''The Sandspur’s ethical guidelines and foster the most professional environment possible at all levels *Become technical, ethical, and successful student journalists Goals The Sandspur plans to achieve its mission by striving to achieve the following goals: *''The Sandspur'' has been a publication Rollins has been proud of for the last 120 years, as shown by the alumni that returned to celebrate their time at the paper, The Sandspur's print and web readership, and the national awards it receives annually. We plan to continue to produce a high quality paper that represents the Rollins student body and reaches out to the Winter Park community. *In the 2013-2014 school year, we have had more than 100 students contribute to The Sandspur. ''Through increased recruitment efforts, we plan to double that number over the next five years. *''The Sandspur prides itself on being an honest publication that shows the good, and the bad, that occur at Rollins. We are not here to paint a pretty picture, but to tell the truth. You can describe that as edgy or you can describe it as the original point of a newspaper. Regardless, we plan to continue to show both sides of every issue we address and to not doubt the need for us to publish something just because it may put a part of the Rollins community in a questionable light. In short, we are not Rollins 360, nor should we ever be. *''The Sandspur'' will increase communication between writers and editors. Through the creation of a new Writing Consultant position, we plan to shift our structure so content editing can begin during the writing process, especially since our turnaround time has to be much shorter than for a monthly or annual publication. Diversity Statement The Sandspur recognizes that a commitment to diversity is crucial to fulfilling its mission to be the primary source of news about the Rollins College community. Being open to and embracing cultural traditions, beliefs, and views strengthens our mission. The Sandspur recognizes that majority groups usually have little trouble sharing their views, while underrepresented groups do not always share that benefit. The Sandspur commits to aggressively covering underrepresented groups to the best of our ability; however, this does not necessarily mean running more stories about “minority” issues and people, as underrepresented groups have stakes in “mainstream” stories too (such as stories about tuition or dining services).